Peacefully Marching Prisoners Tear Gassed, Zip-Tied, Left Out in Rain in Retaliation

KINCHELOE, MI – More than two weeks after prisoners at Kinross Correctional Facility participated in a nationwide prison workers’ strike, the prisoners’ own accounts of what happened are beginning to emerge. Prisoners report that the facility was on lockdown from September 10 to the morning of September 22, preventing communication with their outside supporters.

Most prisoners, including kitchen staff, did not report for work on September 9 in conjunction with the nationwide work stoppage. The following morning between 400 and 500 prisoners marched peacefully in the yard. The deputy wardens came to the prisoners who communicated their grievances, including low wages, the commutation process, restrictive visitation room seating in violation of MDOC policy, high phone rates, poor quality and quantity of food provided by private contractor Trinity Services Group, the way the yard is run, living conditions that squeeze eight men into a room intended for four, no re-entry programs, no bleach for clothes, MP3 players that break easily and cannot be fixed or replaced, not enough room in the law library, not enough room in the visiting room causing some visitors to be turned away, and not being allowed to transfer to other facilities. Continue reading →

Authors: Solidarity Research Center and Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Date: October 2016

September 9, 2016 was the start of the largest prison strike in U.S. history. Over 72,000 incarcerated workers in 22 states refused to provide their labor to profit the prison industrial complex. California forces 5,588 incarcerated workers to labor in exchange for little or no compensation. The financial losses to the California prison system are as much as $636,068 in revenue or $156,736 in profit for every day of the prison strike.

FREE ALABAMA MOVEMENT (F.A.M.) is pleased with the news that the U.S. Department of Justice (D.O.J.) will be conducting a statewide investigation into the issues of abuse, violence and safe, secure and sanitary conditions in Alabama’s men’s prisons, even though we believe that the women’s prison should also be revisited. We would like to emphasize that we are looking for an open, transparent and inclusive investigation that will keep the public updated, informed and INVOLVED throughout this process. Alabama prisons are unique in that they are the most overcrowded, underfunded, and understaffed prisons in America. Therefore, any solutions to the existing problems will need to be unique and require “outside-of-the-box” thinking as well. Continue reading →

A prisoner at Ohio State Penitentiary says he is facing disciplinary action for participating in an NPR interview about the nationwide prison strike that started on September 9.

Nearly a month after inmates embarked on the largest prison strike in the country’s history, the media and the public continue to know little about where and how the action played out, and even less about officials’ retaliation against striking prisoners.

As The Intercept has reported, that’s no coincidence. Prison officials regularly go to great lengths to control the information leaving their institutions, and this strike has proven no exception, despite gradually developing mediainterest in the protest.

Undeterred by challenges, prison activists have succeeded in releasing sporadic updates on the strike as it spread across the country, and some of them have even used a combination of contraband cellphones and their regularly allotted phone time to speak with mediaorganizations.

But those calls come at a cost.

In an incident suggesting just how difficult and risky it can be for prisoners to communicate with the outside, and with journalists in particular, Siddique Hasan, a prison activist sentenced to death for his role in a 1993 prison uprising, said he was “written up” by a prison investigator for his participation in a September 28 episode of the NPR show “On Point with Tom Ashbrook.” Continue reading →

It hardly seems necessary to summarize what has gone down inside U.S. prisons since September 9th. Hunger strikes, work stoppages, and riots have spread throughout the country on a scale that we likely aren’t even fully aware of yet. Some uprisings appeared took us by surprise, such as in several Florida prisons, while others presumably grew from recent organizing endeavors on the inside, such as at Kinross in Michigan or Holman in Alabama. By rough estimates, over 20,000 prisoners were involved in some way. That’s huge.

On the outside, solidarity burned so brightly all over the world. Banner drops, graffiti slogans, noise demonstrations and more showed that we had the backs of all who would partake in the strike. It is worth noting however that the vast majority of this took place the first weekend of the strike. But this prison strike—and the struggle against prisons more broadly—is about more than a day or a week. It didn’t start on September 9th and it isn’t ending any time soon. Some prisoners may return to work while others decide to stop working for the first time. It’s easier when there is a definitive date to take action on, to build momentum towards, but that’s not going to be enough.

Therefore, we would like to offer a call for renewed actions in solidarity with the prison strike and the struggle against prison society. Right now many are organizing anti-repression campaigns for striking prisoners and that is of course very necessary and not nearly as exciting work. But it would be a mistake to conceive of this struggle in a linear fashion—that is to say, a single wave where we demonstrate as it crests and write letters as it crashes. How many prisoners hadn’t heard about the strike until after it had started? How many knew but didn’t think people would actually be there to support them? Three weeks after the start of the strike, inmates in Turbeville, South Carolina rebelled against a guard and took over their dorm. How can we stop while inmates are still risking their lives for freedom? Continue reading →

Immediate asks:
First and foremost we would like to advise you, that we as individuals on our own accord
have decided to invoke our First Amendment Right to assemble and have a peaceful
protest to address our grievances that go unanswered. We are in solidarity with the Nation &
World Wide Prison/Jail Strikes on the 45th anniversary of the Uprising of Attica Prison
and also want to expose our own local issues. For this we expect there not be any
repercussions or reprisals or any form of disciplinary actions taken during or after this
peaceful protest, which will be a hunger strike and refusal of all movements. Continue reading →

A prisoner in Menard Illinois wrote this in response to a noise demo outside of the prison on September 9th.

“Last week we heard the love outside. No doubt we gave it back. They sent a few police up here and around on other wings to quiet the noise, but it was already said and done. We really appreciate the love. It’s always appreciated.”

Peace and Blessings Ladies and Gentlemen. Many in the Media and those who operate prisons across America may attempt to label our Movement as being militant and violent. I shun that distinction. If you would like to know the Truth I will tell it to you. There are many Corporations and Department of Corrections Agencies throughout the United States that prey on and exploit prisoners. Free or super-discounted inmate labor is a big business in America. However, the inhumane treatment of prisoners in America has become the norm and fully accepted status quo. At the heart of this issue is the exception clause present within the context of the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. As a black man I tell you today that we as a people and a Nation have un-finished business to attend to.

In March of this year, the Sun of Kinetik was accused of stabbing Warden Davenport at Holman prison in Alabama. He was then shipped to Donaldson. He has since been assaulted, harassed, and tortured in Solitary Confinement. If you support FAM and the work we do then let Kinetik’s Sun know his sacrifices for change were not in vain. Those willing, drop him a postcard and those able, put a small donation on his books via the ADOC website.